Volkswagen Hits Limits Of Growth In Europe
If you read Volkswagen’s global sales report for May, you get the impression that this was yet another great month. Global sales are up 7.8 percent in May. Things don’t look so rosy when you analyze the numbers a bit further.
As in last month, the blue numbers are calculated from archival data, the black numbers are as reported by Volkswagen AG. We have to do it this way, because Volkswagen does not deliver monthly data, except for the total global sales.
5M’125M’11YoYMay ’12May ’11YoYTotal3,650,0003,370,0008.3%763,800708,8007.8%Europe1,580,0001,560,0001.3%330,000330,0000.0%Ger493,900475,1004.0%106,400108,100-1.6%WEUR ex D825,800881,900-6.4%164,400178,900-8.1%EEUR262,600202,30029.8%57,50047,00022.3%China1,080,000920,00017.4%221,100178,80023.7%USA224,100172,30030.1%50,40040,80023.5%South Am376,700376,8000.0%79,80081,500-2.1%We see that growth in Europe came to a halt. This is Europe as defined by Volkswagen. We won’t be surprised if Europe as defined as the EU will carry a minus when ACEA reports the numbers in a few days. Germany is down 1.7 percent. Western Europe ex Germany is down 8.1 percent. Eastern Europe, up 22.3 percent, is the only European bright spot.
“We continue to focus very closely on the growing uncertainties in the eurozone”,Volkswagen Group sales chief Christian Klingler said today. With approximately half of Volkswagen’s global business in Europe, and with South American sputtering, Volkswagen relies mostly on China and to a lesser degree on the U.S.A. for growth.
Bertel Schmitt comes back to journalism after taking a 35 year break in advertising and marketing. He ran and owned advertising agencies in Duesseldorf, Germany, and New York City. Volkswagen A.G. was Bertel's most important corporate account. Schmitt's advertising and marketing career touched many corners of the industry with a special focus on automotive products and services. Since 2004, he lives in Japan and China with his wife <a href="http://www.tomokoandbertel.com"> Tomoko </a>. Bertel Schmitt is a founding board member of the <a href="http://www.offshoresuperseries.com"> Offshore Super Series </a>, an American offshore powerboat racing organization. He is co-owner of the racing team Typhoon.
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VW was crowing about their strategic brilliance as North America collapsed and took Toyota's and GM's sales with it. Suddently, their perennial failure to sell more cars in North America in a year than Toyota sells Camrys in a month was genius-by-design. Are they going to admit that winning a race because a metaphorical sinkhole opened up in your competitor's lanes doesn't make you some kind of genius? Or are they going to pretend it's different for them because now it's their sinkhole?
Alex Trebek: Marvin, your turn. Winterkorn: Could I have transplant manufacturers for $100, Alex?
I suspect this has nothing to do with Volkswagon, and everything to do with tight credit as EU banks deleverage. I can't imagine any automakers doing particularly well in the EU until the current mess is sorted out...